Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime let a two-set lead and a match point opportunity slip away before falling to No. 2 Daniil Medvedev 6-7 (4), 3-6, 7-6 (2), 7-5, 6-4 in the Australian Open quarter-finals.
The U.S. Open champion Medvedev's bid to become the first man in the Open era to win his second Grand Slam title in the following major tournament is still on track after the four-hour, 42-minute comeback victory.
A six-minute delay in the third-set tiebreaker, so the roof on Rod Laver Arena could be closed during a rain shower, swung the momentum mostly in Medvedev's favour.
Auger-Aliassime won only one of the last six points in the tiebreaker after dominating for the first two sets.
"It's unfortunate I couldn't win, but it was a good match," Auger-Aliassime said. "I'm going to leave Australia with my head held high, and I'm going to go into the rest of the season knowing I can play well against the best."
WATCH | Auger-Aliassime drops heartbreaker to Medvedev:
The Montreal native reached his first career Grand Slam final at last year's U.S. Open, where his run was also ended by Medvedev.
That match in August 2021 was a far cry from Thursday's thriller, with Medvedev winning 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 en route to defeating Novak Djokovic in the final.
While the quarter-final result will sting, Auger-Aliassime is continuing an upward trajectory through the ranks of men's tennis. He has reached at least the quarterfinal stage at three straight Grand Slams, and helped Canada to an ATP Cup title earlier this month.
It was an impressive tournament for Canada's men's stars on the whole, with Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., also reaching the quarter-finals, before losing to Spanish legend Rafael Nadal in five sets.
Auger-Aliassime missed a match point on Medvedev's serve in the 10th game of the fourth set.
Medvedev saved it with a big first serve out wide and then held with an overhead winner. The 25-year-old Russian broke in the penultimate game and held to level the match at two-sets all. He then got another service break when Auger-Aliassime double-faulted in the third game of the deciding set.
"I was not playing my best, and Felix was playing unbelievable, serving unbelievable — he was all over me," Medvedev said. "I didn't know what to do, so I [asked] myself, 'What would Novak do?'
"And I just thought, OK, I'm going to make him work. If he wants to win it, he has to ... fight to the last point."
Medvedev had to save two break points before closing it out more than an hour after saving a match point.
Medvedev will play Friday against French Open runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas. The Greek extended his perfect record in Grand Slam quarter-finals to 5-0 with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win over No. 11 Jannik Sinner.
Rafael Nadal, seeking a men's record 21st major title to break a tie with Djokovic and Roger Federer, will play Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini in the other semifinal match.
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2022-01-26 15:09:06Z
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